Some people can’t hack it in a free society.
They want the government to manage every part of their lives, from the time they realize they have to work for a living until they’re ready for the grave. Such people are afraid of “cold” capitalism and the “rugged individualism” upon which the country was built–two of many reasons why the U.S. still is the greatest country on the planet.
As I’ve listened to and read about liberals’ (including elected officials) disdainful reactions to Americans exercising their constitutional rights by protesting government action, I was sort of sad. People who voted for Obama casually and carelessly accuse dissenters of racism for having the audacity to express discontent over government intrusion, control, and wastefulness.
Even lovers of socialism dreaming of a world in which the government pays their bills and manages their lives (and erodes their freedom in the process, a natural consequence) should see the irony of calling opponents of the “health care reform” bill racists and Nazis. Nazis were national socialists. Obama’s so-called reform bill is national socialism. Then again, it’s fashionable to call people racists and Nazis, especially if the protesters are white.
By the way, I don’t think it’s useful or effective for conservatives to call the other side Nazis, either. Let’s strive to be more original and cleverer than that.
Here’s a mini-lesson so simple, my six-year-old nephew could understand it. Fundamentally, “we the people” are the government, but in a constitutional republic such as ours, elected leaders represent us. Elected leaders of all stripes are prone to forget we have a Constitution and conveniently remember it when it comes to something they want. That’s human nature. I’ve got it. You’ve got it. We all have it. The character-building struggle is to rise above it.
A digression: I wanted to make sure you read Eboo Patel’s blog post. A blogger for the Washington Post, Patel had the straight face to call a Marxist an American patriot and lament the “vicious smear campaign” that led to his resignation from the Obama administration. That Van Jones, who fell on his own sword, was hired to work for the President of the United States is appalling enough. Similarly distressing is Patel himself, blogging regularly for a mainstream newspaper, works for the administration. (Well, he works for us, but you know what I mean.) Obama appointed him to the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Initiatives.
Here we have a current political appointee spreading unmitigated propaganda in support of an anti-America Marxist (redundant, I know). Not an occasional op-ed. A daily blog. (Our hourly or minute-by-minute, his choice.)
Having said that, this is what makes America great. Everyone is free to spout his opinions, from harshly castigating the government and our elected officials to effusively proclaiming our love for them. It doesn’t sit well for me that an Obama appointee has a regular “free press” platform from which to push his man’s policies and sing his praises, and I don’t know how the Washington Post gets away with it. Someone who voted for the president? Okay. But someone appointed by the president? Come on.
(I don’t recall hearing or reading about the Post allowing a Bush appointee to blog. If you have examples, please send them my way, and pardon my ignorance.)
At least the paper allows comments, so real patriots can castigate Patel’s stunningly uninformed and incredible ideas.
You know, some free people tend to forget that freedom costs. They think it rained down from heaven. They think America is the rule instead of the exception. Reasonable and informed people know that American is a successful experiment, one that men and women fought and died to protect. They gave their lives so that I can express my disgust for misguided socialist policies. They sacrificed themselves so that we’d keep our rights to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress and criticize the government without fear of arrest, and all the rest you learned in school.
The majority of Americans elected a man who, despite having taught constitutional law, doesn’t seem to get the Constitution’s elegant simplicity and clarity and what it takes to protect our rights (unless it concerns racial grievances, also known as pseudo-rights) and the absolute necessity of ensuring the freedom of the individual.
Keep protesting and criticizing and calling the administration out. And let’s hope Obama will gain the title of “first biracial president to serve one term.” There’s no guarantee that a Republican will protect the freedom of the American people and the integrity of our system of government…
…but I’ll take my chances. 
